The World’s first truck trail is inspiring the engineers of the future and celebrating 100 years of trucking heritage in Lancashire

LANCASHIRE businesses have lined up to support the world’s first Truck Trail – a unique project to celebrate Leyland’s industrial heritage.

The Truck Trail, which was unveiled in Leyland, Preston in April 2017, is designed to inspire a future generation of skilled workers while creating a striking feature and attraction for the local town.

It is a partnership between Leyland Trucks, Stone Create, South Ribble Borough Council and STEMFirst.

The iconic truck designs are the brainchild of Shane Friend, Managing Director of full service marketing agency, Stone Create, a business that prides itself on delivering high quality, creative marketing ideas.

Mr Friend said: “To see my initial idea for a Truck Trail come to life was incredibly rewarding and It was brilliant to see them all be craned into place. This is a fantastic opportunity for Leyland and one that I am incredibly humbled to be part of.”

Snaking from Leyland railway station to the award-winning Worden Park – 13 6ft-high trucks, each with its own character and personality, form an interactive trail. The trucks are all designed around a vehicle produced by Leyland Trucks since its inception in 1896, and boast names including ‘Super Hippo’, ‘The Comet’ and ‘Military Martian.’

Stone Create have been involved in several aspects of the project, including:

Designing the trucks

Manufacturing the trucks

Brand creation

Website design and build

Colouring book design and print

Map design and print

Social media management

They have also designed and developed an app using the latest AR (augmented reality) technology which lets users watch a video from the sponsors with interesting facts coming to life, when the viewers phones are hovered over the backs of the trucks. This is relatively new technology and has been used by Barcelona Tourist Board and The Gruffalo Trail for The Forestry Commission and adds a new aspect to the visitor experience.

The venture links up with an education project that aims to encourage more young people to learn about engineering. The scheme is self-funding, with each truck sponsored by a local business which has their brand advertised within the design.The sponsorship money will fund an education programme in schools throughout the borough to teach children about careers opportunities in advanced manufacturing and engineering under the banner of STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics).

The education programme will continue over a number of years and schools will be given resources and STEM volunteers will support delivery.

Local school children have also been given the opportunity to design the 14th truck – based on the idea of ‘truck of the future.’ and the final was held at Leyland Trucks, Dragon’s Den style with the children being given the opportunity to have a tour of the factory.

Leyland Trucks, one of the sponsors of the Truck Trail project is universally recognised as one of Britain’s leading manufacturing companies.

Ivan Shearer, HR Director at Leyland Trucks, said: “Leyland Trucks and DAF Trucks UK are proud to sponsor this exciting local community project.

“It is particularly pleasing to work with the project partners to encourage our local education sector to develop their vision of what a future truck might look like, and in doing so we will help inspire the next generation of manufacturers and engineers.”

Stone Create are a full service design and marketing agency designing and developing strategies for companies and offering a full range of design, web ,digital and print services. Next month will see the launch of a new dedicated online print ordering website Stone Print. They are also proud to be Google partners and can advise on any PPC and digital marketing campaigns.

After 34 years working in numerous operational and communications disciplines for three FTSE companies (Yorkshire Electricity; Meggitt and BAE Systems), at over a dozen locations, on 24 November 2016, I became the inaugural editor of Business Lancashire.
Business Lancashire is a good news, Lancashire focused, business website and daily newsletter. It is a partnership between The Samuel James Group and the North and Western Lancashire Chamber of Commerce.
Over the years, I have written hundreds of press releases, features for trade magazines, copy for websites and brochures, edited in-house magazines and newsletters, as well as presenting a radio programme on Chorley FM. This experience has given me the ideal background for editing Business Lancashire.